Is Romanian easy to learn for a person who speaks Spanish, French, Italian or Portuguese?

Question

I speak Spanish and I was wondering if Romanian would be an easy language for me to learn since it's a Romance language and they probably have a lot of phonetic similarities.

Answer 1

Not from what I've seen. The roots will be the same, but unlike the other romance languages which are in the same area and feed off each other, Romanian has been integrated more with the Slavic languages and eastern European dialects.

It doesn't work like most people think it does, if you know Latin, you have an edge to learn the romance languages, but it doesn't mean you're gonna pick them up like a piece of cake. Each language took hundreds of years to develop. For instance, the English language itself is a combination of Germanic and romance influences, so knowing German wouldn't give you a distinct leg up on English.

I find that Spanish will lend itself more to Italian and Portuguese better than say, French.

But give it a shot, some people are linguists and all is easy for them!

Answer 2

You will find Romanian intelligible with relatively little effort. If you were to walk down a Romanian street, you would be able to identify where a cafe is, the hospital, bakeries and the like. You will also be able to pick enough cognate words to make sense of things like newspaper headlines and most advertisements. You will also be able to read menus and order, as well as asking simple questions with little effort. However, the true beauty of the Romanian language comes when you understand not only key words, but the grammar and idioms that make it a unique language among those with latin roots. That will take much longer because Romanian also has a strong slavic influence and many words have a different origin that the Spanish or Latin cognates you may be thinking of. That being said, Romanian is an incredibly beautiful language that blends the beauty of Slavic and Latin languages. When you speak Romanian, the country instantly becomes friendlier, more open and fascinating. Never stop learning, because there are few non-native Romanian speakers and you will find yourself immersed in an incredible culture when you use your Romanian.

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

Romanian is phonetically within reach of anyone who speaks a Western Romance language (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian etc.) but would present a lot of structural problems for someone who speaks these languages.

Romanian grammar has evolved very differently from those of Western Romance languages. For example, Ochi is "eye, " "Ochiul" is "The eye, " "Ochiile lupului" is " The eyes of the wolf" or "The wolf's eyes." Luminã is "light," Lunã is "moon." Lumina lunii is "The light of the moon" or "The moonlight" with the stress on final -a to indicate "The light."

Unlike the Western Romance languages, which use infinitive constructions in ar, are, -er, ere, -ir and -ire, Romanian expresses the infinitive through a subjunctive construction instead using sã (from Latin sic), Thus, Am refuzat sã ucid "I refused to kill" but in Spanish: Yo me negué a asesinar" and in Italian: Io rifutto di uccidere.

Where as the Western Romance languages have just a masculine and a femine gender, Romanian has a third gender, a neuter, as well. Neuter nouns usually take a definite article that is masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural. Many Romanian neuter nouns also end in -uri (from Latin -oris) as in joc "game"; jocuri "games." (Jocurile olimpice = The Olympic games).

However, this does not mean that you shouldn't attempt to learn Romanian. If you're really curious about the language or love the language then, by all means, go ahead. With enough motivation you can learn to speak it almost as well as a native speaker, even if your first language is Spanish.

Answer 5

Romanian, like Spanish, derives from Latin, actually Romanian is the closest living language to Latin. If you speak Spanish you won't have any trouble learning Romanian.

Answer 6

Hello,

It would be a little more work since Romanian still retains those noun declensions like Latin has. See below:

http://home.unilang.org/wiki3/index.php/Romanian_nouns

Cheers,

Michael

Answer 7

U think yes......
but they have lived longtime between Slavians (like me)
sothey vocabulay has somehting with it too....
I kno in Romanian Limba means language....
I don't know if similar to Langue Lingua....

Answer 8

Not primarily phonetic, but a lot of vocabulary and most of the grammar is noticeably Romance. However, there is also a great deal of Slavic vocabulary, e.g., razboj "war", from the Slavic word for "brigandage".

Answer 9

it is a latin language just like italian, spanish, french.... easy to learn for a person who can speak one of those languages....